In an absolut world New York’s Time Square would not be cluttered with advertising but would be the home of amazing art. This is how the IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD campaign was launched in 2007. Now this vision can become reality with your help. Check out the Times Square to Art Square (TS2AS) project, get involved and help turn all billboards on Times Square into art.
But even better, this is not only about donating to support the foundation it is about sharing your ideas for New York’s most famous square. So the initiators ask: “Do you have a clear idea on what Art Square should look like?” And invite you to upload your Art Square on the website.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.
As an evolution of its ongoing “DRINKS” campaign, ABSOLUT VODKA has used the bustling streets of Chicago to bring to life the unique universes created by visionary photographers, Ellen Von Unwerth and Amanda De Cadenet. With a series of bus shelter installations, ABSOLUT has leveraged the imagery of talent such as Kate Beckinsale, Zooey Deschanel & Ali Larter to transform these shelters into tactile installations for people to enjoy. Bringing to life the worlds that embody ABSOLUT “Lemon Drop,” Twist” and “Bloody,” the shelters (which will run until late December) use original seating, stunning colors and even tropical plant-life.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel or contact Jamie Gallo of TBWA\Chiat Day New York directly.
They are known worldwide for their fondness for beer and their expertise in brewing it. But alongside this familiar facet of their national identity, there is a darker side to the Danish relationship with alcohol. In fact, Denmark has a serious alcohol problem.
The government stats make grim reading. 10% of all Danes have an unhealthy level of alcohol consumption. 12% of Danish kids grow up in a family affected by alcohol problems. 20% of Danish boys have experienced violence directly related to alcohol. Half of all Danish girls have encountered problems with their friends due to alcohol. 16% of them have had undesired sex due to alcohol. And 9% of boys, too.
Itʼs no wonder that the government runs an anti-alcohol campaign every year. In 2009, the drive was aimed at young drinkers between 16 and 25. The Ministry of Health wanted to educate youngsters about the positive effects of drinking less.
But there was a sense that the young had heard it all before. They were bored with the conventional approach of the Ministry, which amounted to wagging its finger at drinkers in a disapproving way. A new approach was needed.
Conventionally, anti-drink campaigns focus on the health issue. Theyʼre highly moralistic, and executed in a language and visual frame of reference that is completely foreign to youngsters.
The vision that emerged was clear: the agency and its client needed to convince young Danes that drinking is not cool.
But how to do this in a disruptive way? It was decided that, instead of pointing out the physical effects of drinking, the campaign would focus on the loss of social status. How would you like to be shunned by your friends? Ignored by the opposite sex? Generally regarded as the least cool person around? For a young person, it sounds like a nightmare.
The campaign played on the youngʼs greatest fear: lack of coolness. And it would do so in a language they recognised. The message? StopBefore5.dk
The Media Arts Solution quickly hit youngsters where they lived. It brought the world of Facebook to mass media. A film featuring an alcohol-fuelled night out used Facebook-style tags to demonstrate what happens when drink makes you go too far. A boy called Mikkel dances with a girl, kisses her and then clumsily gropes her breast. She brushes him angrily away. “Idiot!” reads a tag, while another indicates that the pair are “no longer friends”. The end line is: “It is not only your sense of judgement you risk losing when you drink. StopBefore5.dk” The ad ran on TV and in cinemas.
Similarly, print ads did not look like print ads at all, but like Facebook pages. Each picture shows a different youngster behaving badly while drunk. Below, Facebook messages unfold into a story that results in the person being shunned by their friends.
On Facebook itself, the agency created a quiz called A Night on the Town, in which people answered questions about their drinking habits and personal experiences with alcohol. During the test, the application gave the impression that the user was losing friends. And at the end, a line read: “Nicholas took A Night on the Town and lost 43 friends!”
The test was of course available via iPhone as well as on computers. The upshot was that A Night On the Town became the most seen Danish Facebook application ever.
As a result, the StopBefore5.dk page attracted thousands of fans. But there was also a viral effect as youngsters created their own pages, either praising or protesting against the campaign. There was even a fan page for Mikkel, the imaginary youth whoʼd been rejected for his bad behaviour.
The campaign was taken to other websites. A replica of the Facebook chat bar appeared as an ad banner. A message popped up: “Oh my god, you were drunk last Friday, werenʼt you?” If you responded, a link took you to the fan page.
Another banner simulated a Facebook combination – an intriguing idea, as it transported the Facebook design to an unfamiliar environment.
RESULTS
The campaign generated two to three times its actual budget in the form of media mentions: on Facebook, on blogs and in traditional media. More than 25% of young Danes said that, following the campaign, they thought more about alcohol consumption and its social impact. Awareness of the official drinking limits doubled from 43% to 84%. Campaign recall was a massive 91%, while 25% said they had seen the campaign on Facebook. And 12% said the campaign had encouraged them to drink less, and less often.
The conclusion: understanding audience behaviour is key to disruptive success.
Whether you’re cheering, crying, jumping for joy or doing the Mexican Wave, supporting your nation’s team during the World Cup consumes a lot of energy. In order to stay in peak supporting condition, you need a bite from time to time. Which is why McDonald’s – the official FIFA fan food – came up with the entirely relevant idea: “Feed the passion.”
With the help of TBWA, McDonald’s set out to disrupt the conventions of sponsorship communications. Rather than plastering the stadium with logos, it chose to address fans directly in a highly contextual manner.
Posters set the scene for the pan-European campaign. Showing a massive Mexican wave by supporters dressed in the brand’s gold livery, they carried the line: “Cheering takes a lot of energy: Feed the Passion.”
Soon after that, the fun and games began.
To entertain fans and stimulate conversations, McDonald’s and its agency decided to run newspaper ads commenting on each match. Obviously they couldn’t create the ads at the last minute. But how could they predict the outcome of each match?
Answer: they couldn’t. The agency created hundreds of ads in advance, predicting many possible results. This was pure Media Arts dedication.
Things kicked off gently enough, with ads that were trailers for coming clashes, such as “Italy v. Paraguay? They’ll be hungry for a result.” Or “Portugal v. Brazil? Classics don’t come much bigger than this.” (Alongside an image of a Big Mac, naturally.)
But the campaign moved into high gear when the ads were able to capture the full drama and unpredictability of soccer. How about the moment when the Netherlands took on favourites Brazil – and won? An ad the following morning commented: “Netherlands 2, Brazil 1. That’s a tasty finish.”
The executions showed a relish for visual puns. Accompanying an image of a milkshake: “France 1. Africa 2. That’ll shake up the group.” Or with a picture of a cup of coffee: “Slovenia 0, England 1. It’s a real ground out result.” The words amusingly summed up the gruelling match fans had sweated through the night before.
The magic of the campaign lay in its being able to comment on victories and defeats almost in real time. Serbia asked their fans how good it felt to beat the Germans 1:0 (the score was spelled out in fries and a couple of blobs of ketchup); France’s disastrous showing was rewarded with an image of a McDonald’s dessert – a sweet cure for the post-match blues.
Even countries that had not qualified were able to join in the fun. Ireland had been eliminated thanks to a notorious “hand-ball” by France’s Thierry Henry. So when France went out of the tournament, the Irish papers contained this ad: “French fries.” Other non-qualifying countries asked themselves questions such as “Who says we still can’t lift the cup?” or pledged to keep the faith until 2014.
Nearly every aspect of victory and loss was addressed. When Germans woke the morning after celebrating a 4:0 victory over Argentina, McDonald’s suggested a hangover cure.
And then, of course, came the final. Spain asked their fans to show pride in their colours, which neatly mimicked those of McDonald’s! The last ad in the campaign read: “Jump, jump and then jump some more. Congratulations Spain.” The image? An empty carton of fries, its contents scattered all around.
RESULTS
This was a campaign shaped by the World Cup itself. It fused a relevant idea with contextual advertising to speak to and involve the fans. All in all, 25 countries participated. Hundreds of ads were published, millions Macs were sold and many more fans participated.
And the campaign proved that even in media as traditional as newspapers, a disruptive idea and Media Arts skills score big with the public.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.
Mars launched a new campaign for its pet-food brand Whiskas. The campaign was aired in October on over 5000 poster-sites across Germany and marks one of the biggest OOH drives in the history of the brand. Created by the Berlin office of TBWA, the campaign will run across Europe in markets including Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.
“This European Whiskas campaign is an excellent example of a disruptive approach for a brand that exists in a market driven by conventions,” says Stefan Schmidt, Creative at Large Europe at TBWA.
Many translate the insight that “people love cats” into conventional advertising featuring cute cats only. But cat-lovers understand that their appreciation of cats is something very individual: it’s all about THEIR cat. Executed in a simple and beautiful way, the campaign will create an iconic landmark for the brand and leaves plenty of space for cat-owners to project their unique relationship with their pet.
For any comments or suggestions, send an email to Ulrich Proeschel.
It is not about what you say, it is all about how you behave. How a brand lives with its audience makes the difference, DUDES FACTORY has everything in place to become big.
Introduced this month DUDES FACTORY has already become a role-model for a new creative label in the universe of fashion, art and design. Berlin based DUDES FACTORY is set up for ongoing change to entertain their audience.
No wonder that they constantly reach out to connect and collaborate, both with different artists but also with their audience. The designs from the invited artists build the raw material for their customers to get active in the DUDES FACTORY LAB. The two dudes behind the label, Arno and Heri, developed their own online software that allows everybody to remix and individualize DUDES products.
Check out the fun website. Enjoy brilliant street art. And experience a very new way of designing your unique shirts, hoodies and skate boards. Based on the work of great artists but you combine, change, make it yours.
But even better, this is not only about donating to support the foundation it is about sharing your ideas for New York’s most famous square. So the initiators ask: “Do you have a clear idea on what Art Square should look like?” And invite you to upload your Art Square on the website.
